Commitment-makers “pitch” their Commitments to Action to an expert panel, then network with the audience to rethink their current strategies, identify potential resources, and establish innovative partnerships. This session will highlight commitment-makers’ work in the built environment and environmental stewardship, with an emphasis on sustainable sourcing.

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Increasingly, anti-slavery advocates are employing market-based industry incentives such as investment, capacity building, and market access to companies in high-slavery-risk industries willing to transform their practices. The end goal is a better product made by happier—and safer—workers.

This session will garner lessons from several Commitments to Action made by CGI members that utilize this approach, in industries ranging from agriculture to household goods. Members will discuss successful market interventions, examine strategies for replicating and scaling innovative initiatives, and identify potential new partnerships in this space.

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One person out of every three in the world lacks access to the most basic financial services provided by banks and insurance companies. Serving this population—namely those living at the bottom of the pyramid—through micro-lending, micro-savings, and micro-insurance initiatives has proven successful in achieving pathways to economic stability and more sustained prosperity. Mobile technology in particular has given rise to new and innovative ways to deliver those services to the people who need them most, yet this population remains largely untapped.

In this session, CGI members will discuss why large, established financial service providers across the globe often struggle to work with consumers at the bottom of the pyramid, and how the development of new partnerships with organization more adept at operating in the sector—from NGOs to telecommunications companies—can lead to greater empowerment, stability, and economic gains for all.

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CGI members—from key business leaders to local NGOs—have made significant strides in developing operational and financial frameworks and tools for conserving, restoring, and using nature sustainably. Developed as core business priorities, as part of economic development plans, or as conservation-focused initiatives, these cross-sector efforts recognize the value of linking the economy and nature to ensure the long-term viability of the world’s ecosystems.

This session will highlight specific examples that illustrate this relationship across industries, issues, and geographies. CGI members will identify potential pathways to hasten the adoption of tools that prioritize both economic and environmental value. Advances in wild sourcing, ecosystem services valuation, human and environmental health, response and resiliency, ocean and terrestrial conservation, and the role of women in promoting environmental stewardship will be examined.

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Since 1970, the number of people exposed to large-scale floods and tropical cyclones has doubled. In addition to the humanitarian toll, the cost of international humanitarian aid rose 430 percent between 2004 and 2013. The economic implications of natural disasters extend to businesses, driving up internal expenditures and creating challenges for their customers. Typically, large-scale disasters prompt spontaneous participation of the private sector in emergency response—but business can play a much larger role in helping to enhance an at-risk country’s preparedness before a disaster strikes. A region that is increasingly attracting investors and business operations, Southeast Asia, also has a history of vulnerability to natural disasters, including the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, and most recently, Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines in November 2013.

In this session, CGI members will draw on lessons learned in the aftermath of the typhoon as well as other past disasters, and explore strategies that leverage the business community’s capacities for continuity and resiliency planning aimed at reducing vulnerability while increasing their competitive advantage.

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Protecting women’s sexual and reproductive health is paramount to truly empowering women, and is essential to poverty alleviation. However, various challenges to maternal and neonatal health remain, and are further compounded by vague support systems. For example, fistula, a condition resulting from prolonged obstructed labor or sexual violence, often leads to the marginalization of women by their societies, stigmatizing them and sentencing them to a life of dependency. Despite being a preventable and treatable condition, approximately 2 to 4 million women in Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East remain untreated.

This session will bring together CGI members who are employing holistic solutions to address maternal health challenges—from tackling structural systems that increase the prevalence of child marriage or access to human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccinations, to empowering those living with fistula to regain their health and financial independence. Members will explore new opportunities for creative collaboration to protect the sexual and reproductive health and rights of all women.

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Lack of sanitation diminishes people’s overall health, education, and safety—it results in an estimated $260 billion worth of lost productivity, increases healthcare costs, and leads to premature death. Notably, poor sanitation and hygiene result in diarrheal diseases which kills 1.8 million people annually, 90 percent of which are children under five years of age. Further, poor sanitation disproportionately impacts women—for example, more than 50 percent of girls worldwide attend schools without sanitation systems leading to increased absenteeism during menstruation. In this session, CGI members will reimagine how to:

• support NGOs and private enterprises in building sanitation infrastructure for both urban and rural environments
• assist entrepreneurs in providing sanitation solutions to their local communities
• design sanitation services to keep girls safe and in school

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Commitment-makers “pitch” their Commitments to Action to an expert panel, then network with the audience to rethink their current strategies, identify potential resources, and establish innovative partnerships. This session will highlight commitment-makers’ work in global health and on girls’ and women’s issues.

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Members of the Elephant Action Network will come together to discuss their CGI Commitments to Action—and the immediate next steps for 2015—needed to halt the poaching and killing of African elephants and to curb the rising demand for their ivory. In this session, CGI members will examine the progress made over the last year and efforts currently underway, focusing specifically on the following topics:

• Stop the Poaching: What are the available resources in areas of advanced technology, training, and capacity building to support anti-poaching efforts?
• Stop the Trafficking: How can we achieve better intelligence gathering through technology and training to cripple ivory supply chains in Africa and Asia?
• Stop the Demand: Who is purchasing ivory in China, how do we halt the rise in ivory purchases, and how can we use available data to develop and implement more efficient demand reduction strategies?

The Middle East and Africa have been experiencing profound social and economic changes over the past several decades—fostering a favorable environment for creative cooperation and innovation to achieve prosperity. By joining forces, the private sector, government, and civil society can mobilize efforts to help overcome some of the region’s most pressing challenges, such as access to quality education and natural resource management.

This session will bring together CGI members from, or with interests in, the Middle East and Africa to exchange ideas and network around how to best utilize the CGI community to generate solutions.

The global burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs)—including cardiovascular diseases, cancers, chronic respiratory diseases, and diabetes—currently accounts for 63 percent of global deaths. Of these fatalities, 80 percent occur in low- and middle-income countries, significantly impacting global productivity and well-being.

This session will bring together CGI members from both the public and private sectors to identify new partnership opportunities and Commitments to Action aimed at curbing the rise of NCDs. Members will build on the progress made by the NCD Action Network since 2011, and focus on solutions including the prevention of chronic disease risk factors and improved access to quality treatment.

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The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has the potential to be the breadbasket of Africa—however, political instability, civil conflict, and lack of investment has hindered the economic trajectory of the country. Agricultural production has fallen 40 percent since 1990, and nearly 70 percent of the country’s 68 million people are classified by the United Nations as under-nourished. These nutritional and employment challenges can be alleviated by sustainable efforts including agricultural investment.

In this session, CGI members will learn about the DRC Action Network while further exploring long-term solutions, as well as hear from current commitment-makers and identifying potential partnerships.

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Nearly 9 out of 10 community college leaders say students arrive unprepared for college-level work, and more than a third of four-year college leaders say the same. Today, more and more higher education leaders are stepping up with solutions to tackle the problem, including promoting the Common Core State Standards which outline the learning goals that each student should have attained by the end of each grade. In fact, no one is better positioned than higher education to help Americans understand that rigorous standards like these are necessary for students to succeed in high school, through college, and into their careers. At this dinner, a panel of thought leaders and practitioners will explore higher educations’ responsibility to partner with K-12 and early learning, define its role over the education cycle, and highlight best practices from cooperative efforts already underway.

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Residential energy use has significant repercussions on environment and economic situations locally and globally—for example, today in the United States, $241 billion is spent annually on residential home energy. Between 1999 and 2010, home energy consumption increased by 32 percent, driving up costs dramatically. Simultaneously, private sector wages dropped 7.5 percent between 2008 and 2010. Home energy savings can lower costs by hundreds of dollars while reducing carbon emissions and protecting the environment. As a result, local governments and the private sector are finding new and innovative ways to help individuals and families adapt energy efficient retrofits to their homes. This dinner will share best practices in emerging models that use employee energy benefits to further sustainability engagement, and will identify partnerships that can help these models scale in the U.S. and globally.

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